Inner loop drawing more of Houston's homebuyers

Published 6:00 pm, Tuesday, February 27, 2001

New development in the downtown and inner loop areas has high rise apartment and condo sales there on the rise, according to the Houston Association of Realtors.

In 2000, townhome and condo sales increased 6.6 percent, HAR reported, and sold at an averaged median price of $73,696, up from $67,000 a year before.

High rise and loft sales increased from 344 in 1999 to 467 in 2000. The averaged median price of high rises soared 41.7 percent, finishing in 2000 at $269,225.

"As the development of the downtown and inner loop areas continues, residential migration to these parts of town appears to persist as well," Mason said. "Due to shortened commute times to the downtown and medical district areas and tremendous commercial development growth, such as shopping areas and entertainment arenas, the attractiveness of such areas will only increase."

"Many people in Houston believed our real estate market would slow down after 1999's record-setting year," said Todd Mason, 2001 Chairman of the Board of the Houston Association of Realtors, "but those predictions simply never materialized."

Areas in the top ten for single-family homes sales are northwest Houston with 2,864, Bear Creek with 2,536, southwest Montgomery County with 2,694, Hempstead East with 2,300, southern Katy with 1,866, Galveston County with 2,273, Clear Lake with 2,201, Fort Bend Central with 2,037, east Houston with 1,752 and central north Houston with 1,410.

The days that single-family homes in Houston stayed on the market in 2000 moved from 84 days in January to 82 days in December, including a low of 66 days in July. For the year, the average number of days in the market was 75.

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"In 2000, the speed at which homes moved reflected consumers' desires to beat rising interest rates and created heightened competition for listed homes," Mason said.